“With our efforts in extensive consumer research and long-term R&D investment, Vivo is well positioned to pioneer the development of fingerprint scanning technology,” said Alex Feng, Senior Vice President, Vivo.

“Today’s showcase of a ready-to-produce in-display fingerprint scanning smartphone with an optical fingerprint sensor is a step forward in bringing consumers this futuristic mobile experience. We are very excited to make it available to consumers soon,” Feng added.

The company said that the display was ready for mass production.

Synaptics -- the company responsible for handling the touch input on millions of laptop trackpads and smartphone screens -- announced in December 2017 that it has started mass production with its first optical in-display fingerprint sensors.

The company had announced that it is going into full production with what it described as “top five original equipment manufacturers (OEM)”, without naming Vivo. Vivo is one of the top five smartphone vendors globally, according to the IDC Q1 2017 Tracker.

How the in-screen fingerprint scanner works on Vivo’s new smartphone
(Vivo)

Apart from Vivo, another Chinese company called Doogee is said to be working on an in-display fingerprint scanner phone. Called Doogee V, the smartphone seems to be highly inspired by Apple’s iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy Note 8, according to leaked images. Doogee V is also said to come with a notch on the top.